We Can Love Them Both

In October of last year Sharon Camp, president of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, said "in much of the developing world, abortion remains highly restricted, and unsafe abortion is common and continues to damage women's health and threaten their survival." At the United Nations-sponsored "Women Deliver" conference in London in 2007, Dr. Francisco Songare, Director of the UN’s Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health, said that the first priority in reducing maternal mortality “must be sexual and reproductive health – abortion – and without taboos!” In January of this year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States will soon give lots of money to encourage “reproductive health care and family planning” as a “basic right” worldwide. In April of 2009, Secretary Clinton told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee that "We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health and reproductive health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare."

But do abortion and protecting maternal health actually go together?

UNICEF's 2009 "State of the World's Children" report says that "Most of these direct causes of
maternal mortality [the report names bleeding, infection, extended labour, and some other
complications from birth] can be readily addressed if skilled health personnel are on hand and key drugs, equipment and referral facilities are available".

Dr. Robert Walley, head of MaterCare International, said “It is ridiculous to address abortion and contraception at a conference [Women Deliver] about maternal mortality. By definition, a maternal mortality involves a pregnant woman, not a pregnancy that has been avoided or aborted. We have known for many years how to help prevent a woman’s death by emergency obstetrics and skilled birth attendants. It is a shame that these leaders want to divert attention from the real needs of women -- giving her the best of obstetrical care based on life, hope, and the dignity of motherhood.”

In January, Dr. Elard Koch, a researcher at the University of Chile, reported that the South American country of Chile has reduced its maternal death rate from 275 per 100,000 women in 1960 down to 18.7 in 2000. Dr. Koch said "From 1960 onwards, there has been a breakthrough in the public health system and primary care" in Chile. This included developing "highly trained personnel, the construction of many primary health centers and the increase of schooling of the population.”

An article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2000 said "sudden and dramatic decline in maternal mortality rates, which occurred after 1937, took place in all developed countries and eliminated the previously wide country-level differences in national mortality rates. The main factors that led to this decline seem to have been successive improvements in maternal care." It is worth noting that these improvements took place before abortion became legal and widespread in the developed nations being studied. Put another way, providing improved health care to pregnant moms-and not abortion-improved their health.

Interestingly, there are anecdotal correlations between maternal health and laws protecting unborn children. Ireland has strong laws protecting unborn children; they have only 1 maternal death for every 100,000 live births. Poland has strengthened its laws against abortion over the past few years; that nation suffers only 8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The United States, where abortion is legal for any reason at almost any stage of pregnancy, suffers 17 deaths per 100,000 live births.

In 1995, the South American country of Guyana legalized abortion hoping for "attainment of safe motherhood". Guyana's maternal mortality rate is 30 times higher than Chile's. Chile has laws
protecting unborn children, and has (as seen above) made great strides in improving medical treatment to mothers.

Closer to home, South Africa suffers 400 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; South Africa has the loosest restrictions on abortion in all of Africa.

Though the correlation of strong anti-abortion laws is anecdotal, it does make common sense: a
culture that wants to protect the lives of unborn children will certainly want to protect the lives
of their moms too. In this mindset, the health of women and children are both promoted.
We see signs of hope here in the Kingdom, too. On February 19th the Times reported the conversion of a clinic in Maguhdeleni into a full hospital. The hospital will include a maternity ward. According to Sister Grace Mavuso, the great expense of travelling to Mankayane Government Hospital meant many women were giving birth at home. The upgrading of the clinic promises a great step forward for the health of Swazi moms and their children.

The health of a mother and her unborn child need not be in conflict; rather, we can respect the lives of mothers and the lives of their unborn children. We can love them both.

May Swaziland build a culture of life.